Edible plastic made from seaweed

Plastics suck. Although incredibly useful, reading stories about the floating garbage patches in the middle of the ocean and just seeing plastics litter our streets and waterways just make you want to cringe. But we our reliance on plastic is so ingrained with us, the only way to make the change is to change how we create plastic in the first place.

An Indonesian startup called Evoware is hoping to change our relationship with plastics by creating edible plastics made from seaweed. Evoware makes containers for food and other items people can just eat, rather than throwing them away.

Made from farmed seaweed free of chemicals, Evoware is creating a biodegradable and tasty option to the traditional plastic packaging. In fact, Indonesia is facing problems with litter in its rivers and beaches after being named the second-biggest plastic marine polluter behind China.

“I saw how much plastic waste is produced here, which takes hundreds or thousands of years to degrade and contaminates everything,” Evoware co-founder David Christian noted.

The company started by creating a seaweed-based jelly cup, that can hold food (like ice cream for example) or beverages and now they are expanding into other types of packaging. One idea is to create packets for coffee or seasonings that could dissolve and this got us thinking. Imagine pre-portioned fish food that dissolved into the aquariums that didn’t add to the negative side of extra nutrients. Maybe the seaweed could be probiotic laden food for corals and filter feeders?